How about a government shutdown to make those Tea Partiers fear Obama?

posted at 10:45 am on August 5, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

If you want an example of how out of touch media commentators can be with American politics, look no farther than the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart. Barack Obama’s cave on tax hikes in the debt deal clearly annoyed Capehart, who criticized the President for his lack of “aggressiveness” that resulted in a deal that doesn’t reflect “the will of the people” — at least as Capehart sees it. Calling the Tea Party-backed Congressmen “carjackers,” Capehart called on Obama to be “Keyser Söze.” But that’s not the only place where Capehart’s perspective departs from reality:

If you’ve seen the brilliant movie “The Usual Suspects,” you know who this diabolical character is and what he did to gain mythical status. Suffice it to say that Söze so out-crazied the crazies that he became a person not to be messed with — a symbol of fear and grudging respect.

In the coming fights over the next budget, unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts, I want Obama to show the Republican Party in general and the Tea Party in particular that he isn’t afraid to out-crazy the crazies. If that means vetoing bills, taking the fight to individual districts, shutting down the government, so be it.

We’ve already seen this strategy play out twice. Here in Minnesota, Gov. Mark Dayton reneged on his pledge not to shut down the government over his demand for tax hikes, refusing to negotiate a “lights on” bill with the Republican-controlled legislature to avoid the shutdown. How did that work out for Dayton? He rushed back to the capital to cut a deal without tax hikes when his own allies gave him a blast of disapproval in town-hall meetings around the state, while most Minnesotans barely noticed the difference. The shutdown only hurt Dayton’s voter base of unions and the poor. Instead of Keyser Söze, Dayton turned into Eric von Zipper.

Next, Harry Reid tried doing the same thing with the FAA. Unfortunately for Reid, his ploy was rather obvious; he had failed to move an authorization bill in the Senate and hoped that the prospect of putting thousands of government bureaucrats out of work would embarrass conservatives. After the media started grilling Reid on why he hadn’t done anything to move a Senate version of the bill, as well as realizing that putting bureaucrats out of work wasn’t exactly causing Tea Party activists to weep into their pillows at night, and especially after it became obvious that the system ran pretty well without them, Reid ended up quickly surrendering. Instead of Keyser Söze, Reid turned into Jeffrey Goines.

If Capehart doesn’t realize that the Tea Party activists in Congress want to shut down large portions of the federal government, what has he been doing the last two years? A partial government shutdown would please the Tea Party to no end. The only people it would hurt will be Obama’s own constituencies, especially since the entitlement checks would still have to go out to recipients, as those are mandated by statute and not budgeted annually by Congress. The biggest loser in an Obama-triggered shutdown would be Obama himself.

Maybe Capehart should spend some time talking with actual Tea Party activists before coming up with grand strategies like this.

Addendum: To answer Capehart’s question, Söze got the advantage over his competitors by murdering his own family, murdering all of his competitors afterward, and then disappearing. I’m not sure what relation that has to American governance — or to carjackers, for that matter, since The Usual Suspects didn’t have any of either. This analogy leaves a lot to be desired, including taste and the “civility” that Democrats spent the last six months demanding not just of Republican politicians but also conservative commentators.

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Capeheart is really disillusioned by the fact that whitey does not cower in fear at the site of a black man. What he is really upset at is that racism is not defining the issues. So Obama needs to be a scary black man or else race just might become more and more irrelivent.

In the coming fights over the next budget, unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts, I want Obama to show the Republican Party in general and the Tea Party in particular that he isn’t afraid to out-crazy the crazies. If that means vetoing bills, taking the fight to individual districts, shutting down the government, so be it.

That’s straight out of Alinsky (which Obama taught as a “lecturer”)

Specifically, he said that organizers must be entirely unpredictable and unmistakably willing — for the sake of the moral principles in whose name they claim to act — to watch society descend into utter chaos and anarchy. He stated that they must be prepared, if necessary, to “go into a state of complete confusion and draw [their] opponent into the vortex of the same confusion.”

I am all for eliminating:
The Department of Energy
The Department of Education
The Department of Commerce
The Department of Labor

and probably many other departments of the bloated government.

Shutting down the FAA would shut down the nations airports and ground all airplanes as they cannot fly without air traffic controllers.

Boeing, the nations largest exporter, could not deliver airplanes without somebody in the FAA to “buy off” the airplanes.

When you consider the number of people employed at airports, in airlines (and their suppliers) and at Boeing and Boeing’s suppliers one has to realize that putting this sector out of work would cost the government more in lost income taxes than the FAA costs.

I say it’s time to privatize the air traffic controllers.

Boeing already has Designated Engineer Representatives (DERs) who do most of the work for the FAA. DERs are Boeing engineers who answer to the FAA and perform inspections for the FAA. Only the final buy off is actually performed by the FAA itself, and that is a formality.

If that means vetoing bills, taking the fight to individual districts, shutting down the government, so be it.

People would start to realize that the sun still came up, the sky didn’t fall and it would get this stifling, rule making dictatorial behemoth off our backs. It’s called freedom. People as always would adjust to the new realities and life would go on. We may even find a way to do something we always wished for. Get rid of all the hacks sucking us dry in D.C.

FYI Capeheart Unemployment 9.1% but I am positive if you shut down some of the government, you can get that number back up before the next Presidential election. I am sure all those government workers would love to go from their regular government paychecks, to what 300.00 a week ,when they are laid off…..The D.C. area is crawling with Einsteins/

That a Communist can be employed writing articles of outright idiocy like this, in the United States of America.

KMC1 on August 5, 2011 at 11:06 AM

Speaking of Communists

It may be early in the campaign season, but the Communist Party USA already has seen fit to endorse Barack O’bama for the 2012 election.

While noting he is disappointed with “some aspects” of the O’bama administration’s domestic and foreign policy, Sam Webb, chairman of the Communist Party USA, threw his support behind O’bama’s re-election bid.

He wants Obama to threaten to shut down the g’ment? Oh nooooos! Whatever you do Obama, don’t shut down the EPA! No! or the Department of Education!nonononono! Whatever you do, don’t shut down the Department of Energy!!!! we need the DoE everyday in every way!!!! And for the love of pete don’t shut down the FHA!!! who will build our interstate system that Dwight Eisenhower dreamed of!!! Nononono!

NASA?!? NONONONO!!!! we need more weather satellites! And don’t even think about HUD. Please don’t even think about HUD. The demand for Section 8 vouchers outweighs all other things in the budget and we need to spread more blight…for the children’s sake!!!

Since the term “Tar Baby” has now been declared racist, I propose a new term… “Taffy Baby”. It means the same thing, a sticky situation that one should avoid, but without the imaginary racial overtones.

Of course, if you just gotta be racist, you could have Chocolate, Strawberry and Banana Taffy Babies! For instance, a land war in Asia would be a Banana Taffy Baby…

Since the term “Tar Baby” has now been declared racist, I propose a new term… “Taffy Baby”. It means the same thing, a sticky situation that one should avoid, but without the imaginary racial overtones.

Of course, if you just gotta be racist, you could have Chocolate, Strawberry and Banana Taffy Babies! For instance, a land war in Asia would be a Banana Taffy Baby…

When I witness the degree of corruption today in the media and government. I think of two books that one is C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. The second is Gulliver’s Travels. Orwell listed Gulliver’s Travels as 1 of the 10 best books.

From the sound of it, the Dems think forcing shutdown(s) will be to their benefit, a la “Clinton v. Congress.”

IMO, they’re overlooking one part of the dynamic (among many, but I just want to talk about this one right now):

“Clinton v. Congress” pitted a Democrat President against a Congress in which Republicans controlled both the House & Senate – the fight then was “Republican legislation v. Democrat vetoes.”

The scenario’s different now. Because Democrats control the Senate, anything that lands on Obama’s desk does so with a presumption of it being acceptable to Democrats (otherwise, it never would’ve been passed in the Senate).

IMO – apart from voter sympathy for the goal of reducing deficits, debt, etc. – this is part of the reason the Democrats “terrorist, etc.” talk has missed the mark.

“The Democrats vote with them for the bill & then turn around and call them terrorists? What does that make them? Terrorists? Weak? Unprincipled? “

The race hustlers are not looking for an actual violent confrontation. While violence may occur it is something they hope only occurs on the fringe. (Preferably all white against black.) No, what they really want is the continued perceived notion that the whites hold a special contempt in their hearts against blacks. And thus holding this so called contempt many can be manipulated through guilt. If Obama’s utter inability to lead becomes the leading factor here then white guilt is useless. Capeheart and other racers fear this greatly. They want Obama to be a little scary so that they can then fabricate racist intent. They then hope to turn this fabricated racist intent into a guilty conscious.

Capeheart perfectly captures the massive denial and moronic militantism of the Left at their fateful moment of reckoning with their own total failure and imminent doom. They will not go gently. I come across many leftists in my travels, and can’t tell you how many say the same thing, and have called Obama “Neville Chamberlain.” If so, I ask, who is Hitler and the Germans in this metaphor? They don’t always explicitly say, but we know.

It is Obama’s own thuggery and chicanery that stirred the tea party movement. This idiot hasn’t even figured that out. Because, of course, he can’t. He’s a leftist.

In the end though Keyser Söze’s defining trait was his ability to lie well, to deceive people convincingly and seamlessly on the fly. Mr. Capehart clearly just wants Obama to lie better off the cuff. He lies fantastically well when he has TOTUS, but in spontaneous lying he keeps going back to the same lies, shared sacrifice, fair share, Mediscare, Bush, Bush, Bush.

Since the term “Tar Baby” has now been declared racist, I propose a new term… “Taffy Baby”. It means the same thing, a sticky situation that one should avoid, but without the imaginary racial overtones.

Of course, if you just gotta be racist, you could have Chocolate, Strawberry and Banana Taffy Babies! For instance, a land war in Asia would be a Banana Taffy Baby…

Haiku Guy on August 5, 2011 at 11:22 AM

Check your email. A memo was put out sometime ago. “Tar baby” has been replaced with “Liquid roofing and pre-asphalt paving treatment baby”.

No I don’t believe he would veto anything that passed in the Senate. Obama is in campaign mode, that necessarily requires voting present. The only legislation that get’s through, is if the President is given political cover by the Democrat majority in Congress. Gusty huh/

The race hustlers are not looking for an actual violent confrontation. While violence may occur it is something they hope only occurs on the fringe. (Preferably all white against black.) No, what they really want is the continued perceived notion that the whites hold a special contempt in their hearts against blacks. And thus holding this so called contempt many can be manipulated through guilt. If Obama’s utter inability to lead becomes the leading factor here then white guilt is useless. Capeheart and other racers fear this greatly. They want Obama to be a little scary so that they can then fabricate racist intent. They then hope to turn this fabricated racist intent into a guilty conscious.

Interesting analysis. I’m not sure I agree completely; at least SOME of the race hustlers are spoiling for a fight because they know we’re outnumbered and outgunned. But I think you’re right in general.

These goofballs are so out of touch…
There is no “Tea Party”, there is no “Tea Party” movement, it’s just descriptive of America, and what the American public want.
The “Tea Party” has democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, gays, minorities…all it wants is for the government to be responsible, quit spending money it doesn’t have, and be open to the people.
The “Tea Party” is everyone, includes everyone, except those with ideology so extreme that they can only be deemed un-American. That is why the “tea party” doofuses who post here and complain about the deal are not taken seriously.
It’s just a name given to the majority of American’s who scare the minority that are losing control.
It could be the “moon god”, Zeus, a witch in Salem, a giant squid, a white whale, or a prophet, they all mean the same thing, the end of an era and the end of rule for a party that is afraid of it’s own shadow.

Maybe Capehart should spend some time talking with actual Tea Party activists

Why? None of the MSM has really bothered to do that yet. THEY already KNOW everything there is to know about the Tea Party. It’s a ‘nothing’, it’s a faux grass roots movement, it’s RACIST!, it will go no where, it’s the KKK, and now IT’S TERRORISTS!

The left has no clue. Same playbook they’ve always had. Give us MORE time. Give us MORE money. We’ll get socialism right this time!

Capeheart is part of the corrupt corporate media system, that has a stake in keeping the power structure intact. They like the way they have the federal government rigged. They don’t want the TEA party – middle class America to change a thing in D.C. including the politicians they have in their collective pockets…but the market dropping in the last couple of days has put a kink in their plans. The smartest guys in the room, that’s a relative calibration isn’t it?

Whoever is programming MSNBC thinks, that Americans are buying the corporate BS. As a rule people don’t get their news from the boob tube anymore. Let alone a low rated cable news outlet, that finishes last in ratings on a regular basis.

I thought the name came from the bottom of a coffee cup….there never was a Keiser Soze.

Dr Evil on August 5, 2011 at 11:17 AM

No, no. The name “Kobayashi” came from the bottom of the coffee cup. Keiser Soze was first spoken by the turk survivor of the ship explosion and his name was already known to the FBI agent. Now, the details of Keiser Soze’s life and rise to power may or may not have been made up by Verbal. In fact by the end of movie the only thing that know for sure is that several people are dead, a ship is blown up, and you don’t want to mess with Keiser Soze.

More grand-violent fantasies from the affirmative-action left weenies and pansies who are unfamiliar with manliness or even tough negotiations…blah, blah, blah. A D.C. fem calling for death to terrorist Tea Partiers.

Yawn…

800+ plus comments at WaPo, many of them mocking this know-nothing twit and making the same point as Ed: the Tea Party types were perfectly happy to force a balanced budget by refusing to increase the debt ceiling, and they knew the liberals were not. Hard to lose that fight.

Addendum: To answer Capehart’s question, Söze got the advantage over his competitors by murdering his own family, murdering all of his competitors afterward, and then disappearing. I’m not sure what relation that has to American governance — or to carjackers, for that matter, since The Usual Suspects didn’t have any of either. This analogy leaves a lot to be desired, including taste and the “civility” that Democrats spent the last six months demanding not just of Republican politicians but also conservative commentators.

Wasn’t Sose just another one of Keven Space’s character’s lies? Something he made up on the spot to help him get away?

gekkobear – 8/4/2011 10:09:10 AM MDT
Trust me , we already fear him. Those of us who complained when the Republicans had the House, Senate, and Presidency and complained that 400 bil in deficits were too high; we’re pretty scared of the party with a leader who thinks 1,500 billion in deficits is too low.

What’s your solution?

“shutting down the government”

So you’re going to quit spending massive amounts of money on frivolous crap and building up debt we’d otherwise be passing on to our kids?

“Obooba should wear a red do rag, and a Reds jacket, and sagging oversized jeans, and lotsa bling, and wave a .40 around, and install giant woofers in the Oval Office sound system, and get some neck ink…”

What type of pogrom did you have in mind? He and his auxiliaries have already gone the verbal attack route by calling them terrorists and hostage takers and Hamas like. What verbally attacks would be next? Spawn of Satan? That’s about all that’s left for a verbal assault escalation. But they already fear him in that he is through incompetence, or more likely intent, pushing America in the direction of a Third World country, so you presumably have more than verbal attacks in mind. Concentration camps? Ovens? Don’t be shy. You know that’s what you would like.

Someone really should call the FBI about this Jonathan Capehart. He sounds like he is about one shake from going postal. I am quite serious. He has given an abundance of warning signs.

Shut the government down? My opinion is, do it, you pussies. Along with welfare checks, Social Security payments, Medicare payments, Medicaid payments, veteran’s retirement checks, military pay, and all those very many unnecessary but greedy minor piglets that suck at the government teat, such as ACORN et al.

Then sit back and see what happens. I say you’re trapped by your own policies, and if you can’t find a way to work out of this entitlement mess in a “sustainable way” (remember that phrase, progressives?), the results are going to be far worse than ugly.